The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-07-23
OHIO NATURAL GAS.
Murat Halstead's Graphic Description OF
the Great Findlay Wells.

the street there is gas, south of it oil
this at depth Of between twelve and
thirteen hundred feet.
The Karg well is the greatest of the
gas strikes. 1t was for several months
uncomfortable, pouring out with roar
like that of Niagara. When it had
been harnessed down for q couple of
months, it broke out again worse than
ever. The power of the well, so far as
it is possible to judge, is greater than
at first, but the instrument used to test
the force of the gas in firing heavy ar
tillery would be required to prove any
thing. If one could imagine string
of steam boilers under about four hum
dred pounds pressure put up like Chi
nese crackers and exploded as pack
of crackers are fired, he could realize
the Karg well turned loose. Even
the engineer who handles the lever to
turn the gas on, or off, rather-that
is, to let it go-is afraid of it, for it
screeches, yells, roars, howls and re-
verberates. 1t seems to be mad-to
have an awful fit of everlasting anger.
An attempt was made to discharge the
karg well through y lofty perpendic-
ular pipe, but the pressure was so great
the pipe could not be maintained, so
the blow-off is at the edge of the river
and horizontal. When it is lighted the
flame is as balloon or a pear in shape,
and glows as the sun, looking like one
of those respondent protuberances the
astronomers see at the edge of the sun
in eclipses.
There are thirty wells about Findlay
that yield gas, and there have been but
three or four failures to get it on the
right side of the town. Very little gas
is wasted at this time when new wells
are opened. The earth is removed near
the drill, heavy walls built, and iron
braces arranged to sustain the valves,
and thus the benehcent monster is
collared and made ready for the con-
Meeting pipes. p.
But the gas is not tractablc as oil. 1t
refuses to flow down hill, and its force
departs from ii rapidly. The natural
gas will burn brick or lime to perfection
and without cost, or ut any rate an ex-
pense SO trifling that it need not be
counted. This provides building ma
terial of the best, and The supply is suili-
Gent to reproduce Babylon.
How long will the gas last? That is
the conundrun. 1t is found in pnr-
Gus limestone, which must be prodig-
ious storehouse of gas and oil. We can
not wei estimate what is going on in
the bosom of the earth. The wells at
Findlay are about quarter of mile
deep. What there is in the next ten
miles who shall say? The burden OF
belief is that the gas will continue to be
evolved from the earth; that it is the
product of certain vast combinations,
including the cracking of the crust of
the earth by the quakes that are the
commissions of the continent Some
hold thai the gas is a product of petro-
leum, but the weighter opinion is that
the petroleum is the product of the
gas, even as whisky is condensation
OF vapor. The gas, under pressure and
subjected to Il low temperature, is dis
titled into petroleum, is the theory.
The division that Findlay marks
between the gas and oil fields is re-
markable. Just now Findlay talk is
all of gas. The day may come when
the petroleum will be highest in favor.
As the case stands it costs something
more than 81 900 $500 or $500 more,
possibly-to bore a gas well and get
it ready for piping, and s., 900 to drive
an oil well and provide tanks that the
flow may not be wasted.
In the oil country the drill strikes
first gas, second oil, and third salt
water, and the trick is to bore close to
the salt water without tapping it. The
deeper you go without striking the salt
the better, but if the salt water is
struck the well is spoiled. A new oil
well--a gusher-about four miles from
Findlay, was visited. 1t was in the
corner of y cornfield, and three 500
barrel tanks had been made
ready. One of these was full with one
days gush, and the oil was
forced into the second. through two
two-inch pipes. At intervals the dark
product poured with an immense splut-
tcring, fairly boiling with gas, and ran
into the tank as if rushed by high
steam. Then the flow would cease for
y few minutes, and be resumed with
hoarsc and gurgling fury. The action
is quite like that of II geyser, only the
geyser is Il steam-hole, and the prctro-
leum is thrown to the surface by the
natural gas, and with it bubbles like
champagne.
Along the country road to the gas
we'll one could see in the grass the rusty
lines of the pipe carrying the product
of the neighboring wells to storage
tanks nine miles distant, and the gut
tiers by the roadside were often dark,
and the grass stained with oil. The
marks of superintendent flows were
frequent in this county. There were
pools that appeared to be of petroleum
in some of the fields, and large patches
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